Third Circuit Sets Upcoming Schedule in TransPerfect Case to Hear Vital Federal "Takings" Question

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The United States Court of Appeals for The Third Circuit ruled to immediately schedule Philip R. Shawe's and Shirley Shawe's constitutional challenge to the Delaware Chancery's unprecedented ruling to forcibly take his private company, TransPerfect Global.

The Shawes' brief challenged the Delaware Federal court's reliance on the highly-technical Rooker-Feldman doctrine (subject matter jurisdiction) as a basis to deny a stay or avoid hearing the merits of his challenges to the TransPerfect case. In the brief, Shawe states that Rooker-Feldman only applies to 'final' state judgments. Because the Chancery's Order is not actually 'final' but 'interlocutory' Shawe should be able to move forward. 

"We are gratified by the Third Circuit's decision to schedule this quickly so that we can challenge Chancellor Bouchard's original ruling which is unfair, and more importantly unconstitutional," Shawe said. "The Delaware Judiciary has caught both me and my 76-year mother in a heads-we-lose, tails-we-lose situation regarding due process, appeal rights and the 'Taking' of our personal property. This web of conflicting legal double-talk has left us in limbo, and has thus far denied us our full and fair right to appeal and federal review." 

The Shawes' brief focuses on whether the district court improperly dismissed an early appeal because of "lack of subject matter jurisdiction." While the Chancery Court activity is ongoing, the Court had technically not issued a "final" judgment. In fact, since the case is still under jurisdiction of the Chancery, and the Shawes are prohibited from seeking relief from SCOTUS until the decision is final, the brief argues that the district court must hear the Shawes' constitutional claims before their property is seized. 

The brief also explores whether the coming forced-sale of a private, for profit, profitable, and growing corporation ordered by the Chancery Court is considered an unconstitutional 'Taking' in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments since the sale furthers no public use or purpose, but rather is meant to, and does, benefit only private parties. In fact, in his response to the Shawes' federal lawsuit, Delaware Secretary of State Jeffrey W. Bullock stated that, "Here, the State has not taken any property for public use in the context of the Fifth Amendment." 

Robert Pincus, the TransPerfect's court-appointed custodian, along with Delaware Secretary of State Jeffrey W. Bullock must respond by December 4. The Shawes will then have until December 15, 2017 to reply. 

The brief will argue that neither Delaware nor other jurisdictions have ever taken the extraordinary, radical step of ordering the transfer of corporate stock from its owner to another private party to benefit other shareholders in an internal management dispute, and that this will set a negative precedent.

SOURCE Philip R. Shawe